Abstract

A growing literature emphasizes the importance of managing the adverse effects of climate change on animal and plant species,
biological communities, natural areas, and ecosystems. Although replete with general ‘climate adaptation’ strategies, this
literature provides relatively limited guidance on translating these strategies into actionable conservation prescriptions.
This review synthesizes information from the conservation planning and climate adaptation literature, including climate adaptation
plans developed in Canada, England, México, South Africa, and USA, and presents elements of a general approach for developing
actionable adaptation measures for wildlife species and conservation areas. Grounded in an adaptive management framework,
this approach incorporates existing conservation tools for land and water protection, land and water management, species conservation,
and monitoring, and also integrates new information from climate models, sensitivity analyses, and vulnerability assessments
for species and ecosystems. WIREs Clim Change 2011 2 498–515 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.127

Images

Figure 1.

A generalized process for managing the effects of climate change on wildlife and ecosystems, as outlined in this review. The process incorporates new sources of information on climate change from climate modeling, sensitivity analyses, and vulnerability assessments into the traditional adaptive management cycle.